Aviva are set to donate £97,774 to charity Railway Children after the overwhelming goodwill shown by Canaries fans who tweeted their support for the charity during Saturday’s match as part of the #1every5 twitter campaign.

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For the second year running, Norwich City FC players wore the logo of charity Railway Children on their shirts during their 2-1 victory over Everton, to lend their support for sponsor Aviva’s UK charity partner and help raise awareness of the fact that one child runs away from home every five minutes in the UK.

For every tweet or retweet posted on Twitter on match day including the hashtag #1every5, Aviva pledged to donate £1 to Railway Children with the aim of reaching a target of £18,000. Last season, the community game activity raised £10,000. But that target was smashed almost five times over, as fans got involved in their thousands, making #1every5 trend number one in the UK.

Overwhelmed by the support of the British public – which included tweets from Norwich City director Stephen Fry, TV presenter and Canaries fan Jake Humphreys and comedian Ricky Gervais, as well as the players themselves, led by club captain Grant Holt – Aviva has generously increased their donation to £97,774. This reflects the full number of 97,774 individual tweets or retweets using the hashtag that were generated during the 24 hours of Saturday, raising valuable awareness and vital funds for Railway Children.

Heather Smith, marketing director at Aviva Direct Insurance said: “We would like to thank all who showed their support for our charity partners Railway Children this weekend by tweeting the hashtag #1every5. This match offered us a fantastic opportunity for us to build on our year-round work with Railway Children, raising awareness and funds for the charity. We are delighted to have far exceeded our original target of £18,000 with a total of 97,774 tweets. Many thanks to all those who joined in, and helped to spread awareness of the fact that one child runs away from home every five minutes in the UK – a hidden issue which deserves more attention.”

Railway Children provide help and support to children under 16 who have run away from home or are at risk of doing so. The charity’s chief executive, Terina Keene, said: “Many thanks to the British public for your amazing support and to Aviva for their kind generosity. One child is estimated to run away from home every five minutes in the UK. That’s the equivalent of 18 children during a 90 minute football match.

“I hope that while fans were tweeting their support using the hashtag #1every5, they took a brief moment to think about how shocking this statistic really is – sadly, for most of us, it’s far more common than you might think. Young people run away or are forced to leave homes where they suffer poverty, violence, abuse and neglect. Aviva’s generous donation of £97,774 provides much-needed funds to help us deliver crucial support and services before, during and after young people run away from home.”

For more information on match day activity and for a chance to win one of the signed limited edition shirts, please see http://www.railwaychildren.org.uk/ncfc